If Wishes Were Horses 4

Today’s word count:  1898           Total word count: 7421

When I came to, the area around me had been cleared of people and Minty was telling everyone to stand back and give me air. My wish granting sprite was also there, offering in a very sympathetic tone to give me a lift home because I was obviously still rather ill. I tried to object but Minty, thinking she was doing me a favour, announced that it would be a good idea and how kind of him to offer. She gave me a sly wink when no-one was looking, and completely ignored the frantic shaking of my head and my pleas that I was fine and could go back to my desk if I could just take a short while to get myself together. 

“No, no Angie. You know you’ve been really poorly. Let ..... I’m sorry, I don’t know your name,” she said, turning her most winsome glance towards my nemesis.

“Just call me Sir Galahad,” he replied, offering an equally winning smile but failing to show any sign of the points on his teeth.

“Ooo how romantic is that? A genuine knight in shining armour,” she said to me, but I was horrified. 

“Trust me, he’s no gallant rescuer, he’s a chancer, “ I whispered back as quietly as possible, but he leaned down towards me and put his hands under my shoulders as if he was helping me up from the floor. 

“I heard that,” he hissed savagely in my ear, then turning to the assembled crowd he put on his pretty face again and said, “Come on now, let’s get you off the floor and into your car. You need to be at home.”

My protests went ignored by the whole crowd, in fact many of them muttered support for my apparent Good Samaritan and even offered compliments on his generosity. It was all I could do not to shout out that he was an impostor, but a sense of self preservation held me back. Suppose I’d told them who he really was. I could just imagine the response.

“This is actually some evil spirit who is solely responsible for Mr Elliott’s death. Somehow he cast a spell and made the poor man stand around on a railway line, waiting until a train came along and with no thought of escape from his fate.” It would have got me out of there fast, but right to the local asylum in a straight jacket. Just like in the game Monopoly. “Go to jail. Move directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.” Not a chance!

There was no choice but to give in and I acquiesced, allowing myself to be guided away from the meeting hall and out to my car. Along the way somebody handed me my bag and coat, and Minty walked alongside uttering soothing noises and phrases and encouraging Rumpelstiltskin to take his time and make sure I was OK before he came back. “In fact don’t leave her until you’re certain she’s not suffering any serious damage.”

I  gave out an exasperated sigh and rolled my eyes, but Minty mistook it for a return of my symptoms and only urged my guardian more intently to take care of me. I couldn’t win. I allowed him to escort me to my car, but once we reached it I turned on him.

“What the hell are you doing?  What were you thinking?  Why are you at my work? What the HELL do you want?” 

He looked at my fuming face for a full three seconds before replying. “That’s a lot of questions.”

“Too right it’s a lot of questions, and you’d best start answering them buddy!”

“Wrong.”

“What? What’s wrong? What are you talking about?”

“I’m not called Buddy.”

“More like Beelzebub,” I thought to myself. 

“Nor that.”

“Nor what?”

“I’m not called Beelzebub either.”

That stopped me in my tracks. “How did you know.... What do you..... You read my mind.  Can you read my thoughts? You read my thoughts! Get out of my head!” My voice was rising and I could feel hysteria creeping in.

“Now, Ange. If you just thought about things for a while you’d realise that you already knew that. After all, you didn’t wish out loud for the poor squashed beggar to play on the railway line, did you? I must have read your thoughts.” I hate it when people call me Ange, but I guess he knew that too, if he could hear what I was thinking. If he continued to push me this way I was going to explode. Suddenly I realised that he could read that thought too, and it would be just like him to make me blow up for real and claim I’d wished for it.

“Blow you up? Well, if you’re going to be ridiculous I’m going to leave you alone until you come to your senses.” And there he went again, just like turning off a table lamp. 

How I got home in one piece I will never know. My temper reached incandescence by the time I parked outside my flat and I was ready to fight someone, anyone, but preferably him. I had to compose myself if I had any chance of beating him in an argument though. I needed clear thoughts and a calm approach.  I took several deep breaths before I walked up to my floor and inserted the key in the lock. 

I’m not sure how I knew, but I wasn’t surprised to see him already sitting on my sofa as I went in. His appearance had changed again and he was more like the old version of him, the human version, that is, not the hairy monkey man figure who’d appeared originally. 

I walked straight past him and into the kitchen, where I began pointedly and noisily to make myself a cup of tea. I filled the kettle and plugged it into the wall socket, flicking the switch as loudly as I could. Then I started rattling crockery around and arranging mugs, a milk jug and sugar basin on the work top. I don’t take sugar, but it was an extra item to shuffle about.

“Not for me, thanks!” he shouted from the other room, but I didn’t reply.  Then, after a pause, “Are you ignoring me?” I ignored him. 

I selected a bag of Earl Grey from the boxes in the cupboard and dropped it into a mug. Then I poured steaming water onto it and watched it steep for a while. I found a teaspoon and fished out the bag, being careful not to squeeze it too hard so I wouldn’t get the bitter dust in my drink. I carefully dropped the soggy bag onto a plastic tray by the sink, and finally I opened the fridge door and reached in to find the milk. All the time I was taking deep breaths and trying to lower my blood pressure.

“Milk in Earl Grey? How very plebeian of you.”

He was doing everything to annoy me and so far he was extremely successful. “Don’t let him get to you,” I tried not to think, but it was impossible. Whatever I did he would always be ahead of me. So I figured I had better face him and try to make the best of a very bad situation. I carried my mug of tea through to the lounge and sat down in the arm chair opposite the sofa. I said nothing, but I sipped my tea and waited for him to speak. I knew he would. He was too much in love with himself to be quiet for long. 

“You’re confused, I know. You’re still getting used to all of this and you had a shock today. You didn’t realise how strong your wishes can be. You mustn’t blame yourself for that poor man’s death.”

The outrage of such a statement started my hackles rising but I managed to stay calm. “I don’t blame myself. I blame you.”

“Now hang on a minute there. How is it my fault? I only granted your wish, it was your idea to hit the guy with a train.”

“I did not.....” I took a deep breath and started again in a more measured tone. “I did not wish to hit anyone with a train. I merely wanted him to go away.”

“Then you should have been a bit clearer with your instructions.”

“What instructions?  I didn’t wish for him to be killed. I didn’t wish for anything!”

He gave me a long, strange look before replying very slowly, as if he was speaking to a particularly stupid child. “Yes. You did.”

“I never said ‘I wish’. How could you think I wished it?”

“Because, Angie Baby, at that moment in time your whole being wanted that man to go away and stop bothering you forever. That makes it a wish.”

“Not forever, just for then.”

“Nope. Forever. Trust me. I know your mind, even if you don’t.” He gazed at me with such a look of pity that it made me want to cry, and I hated myself for it. 

“But that’s so unfair. I never intended anyone to get hurt, let alone killed, you should have known that. You shouldn’t have killed him.”

“You shouldn’t have thought it.”

“He had a family, you know. A wife and a couple of kids, and now they’re alone.”

“Yes, I know he was a husband and father, but did you give his family any thought when you wished him dead?”

“But I didn’t wish him dead! I just wanted him to go away. You took it completely the wrong way. You did it deliberately and now Mr Elliot is dead and it’s awful.” I fought back tears, but lost. I couldn’t escape the awful thought that somehow I should shoulder some of the blame. Had I actually wished the man dead because he’d caught me sleeping at my desk?  Oh god that would make me a terrible person. 

“This is so unfair. You’ve landed me with this wishes thing and not given me any clue how it works. It seems like I’ve been dropped into the middle of a huge game but I don’t know the rules. I wish you’d tell me the rules.”

“Later.”

“What do you mean ‘later’? I just wished. You have to tell me because I wished it. Three wishes a day, remember. You have to grant my wishes.”

“Wherever did you get the idea that I have to grant your wishes? I don’t have to do anything of the sort. This is a purely voluntary position. I told you, I’m not a genie. And it’s ‘up to’ three wishes a day. I also warned you that they might not happen immediately. Do pay attention.”

My temper finally burst. “Get out of here. Get out of my head. Get out of my life. You’re a monster. A filthy, rotten, murderous monster and I want you to leave now.” I took the pendant off my neck and hurled it at him. “Go away!”

He pointed a bony finger at me and bared his sharp teeth. “Now I know I warned you about being polite. Don’t ever shout at me again.” This time he disappeared slowly, and as he diminished the pain in my head grew until it was a full-blown, stabbing, migraine.